A farmer who built the first new long barrow tomb in the UK in more than 5,000 years has been told that he must pay thousands of pounds in business rates on it.
Tim Daw, the owner of the burial ground used by Pagans, has been told by the Valuation Office Agency that he must pay between £4,500 to £5,000 a year in business rates for his burial mound where people pay to inter the ashes of their loved ones.
Long barrows were in widespread use in the early Neolithic period and examples still exist today, but the burial method fell out of use.
Usually, church graveyards and burial grounds are exempt from the tax as they are seen as places of worship. But Mr Daw has been told that his long barrow is a commercial storage facility that must pay the tax, as it falls above the rateable value on a business property of £12,000.
Mr Daw, from Devizes, Wiltshire, said the decision means mourners visiting his tomb will have to “pay to pray” and that the move discriminates against non-Christian forms of worship.
Mr Daw, a farmer, said:
He used conventional stone working techniques to create the unusual site at his farm in All Cannings, Wiltshire.
The tomb is designed on an alignment that means the sun shines down the central chamber on the Winter Solstice, which also makes it a popular place of worship with druids and pagans.
Mr Daw says the building, which took nine months to construct, cost him around £200,000.
The long barrow is about 220ft long and 20ft tall and has stone chambers with a series of shelves, called niches, where people pay to have their loved ones' ashes stored.
It has 340 niches that can hold two or three urns and each niche carries a one-off charge of £1,000. All of the niches are now reserved, although only 40 are currently filled with urns.
Mr Daw, makes an average of £1,000 a year from the burial site, but would have to pay £5,000 a year in business rates.
He puts any money he takes towards the maintenance of the long barrow and has said that anyone, whatever their religion, is welcome to visit it.
He said:
A spokesman for the Valuation Office Agency said they could not comment on specific cases.
Tim Daw, the owner of the burial ground used by Pagans, has been told by the Valuation Office Agency that he must pay between £4,500 to £5,000 a year in business rates for his burial mound where people pay to inter the ashes of their loved ones.
Long barrows were in widespread use in the early Neolithic period and examples still exist today, but the burial method fell out of use.
Usually, church graveyards and burial grounds are exempt from the tax as they are seen as places of worship. But Mr Daw has been told that his long barrow is a commercial storage facility that must pay the tax, as it falls above the rateable value on a business property of £12,000.
Mr Daw, from Devizes, Wiltshire, said the decision means mourners visiting his tomb will have to “pay to pray” and that the move discriminates against non-Christian forms of worship.
Mr Daw, a farmer, said:
Responding to the decline in people wanting traditional Christian burials, Mr Daw decided to create the long barrow."I got an email from the business valuation office saying they considered my long barrow as a place for storage, like a warehouse you would store car parts in.
Them describing it as 'storage' is demeaning to the families whose loved ones are buried here.
I couldn't believe it. It's not right and it should be treated the same as a Christian church. It feels like discrimination.
We are being told we must pay to pray. There is one rule for the established Christian religions and another for ancient pagans."
He used conventional stone working techniques to create the unusual site at his farm in All Cannings, Wiltshire.
The tomb is designed on an alignment that means the sun shines down the central chamber on the Winter Solstice, which also makes it a popular place of worship with druids and pagans.
Mr Daw says the building, which took nine months to construct, cost him around £200,000.
The long barrow is about 220ft long and 20ft tall and has stone chambers with a series of shelves, called niches, where people pay to have their loved ones' ashes stored.
It has 340 niches that can hold two or three urns and each niche carries a one-off charge of £1,000. All of the niches are now reserved, although only 40 are currently filled with urns.
Mr Daw, makes an average of £1,000 a year from the burial site, but would have to pay £5,000 a year in business rates.
He puts any money he takes towards the maintenance of the long barrow and has said that anyone, whatever their religion, is welcome to visit it.
He said:
"The long barrow is built like an ancient druid temple and we've had druids come here to worship.Mr Daw said he has since had confirmation from a different government agency, the registrar, accepting the long barrow as a place of worship.
It has also become used for a loose kind of pagan worship, so I just always assumed it was a place of worship and that was that, like a church.”
A spokesman for the Valuation Office Agency said they could not comment on specific cases.
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